This little seaside village, 4 hours south of Manilla via bus & boat, is sanctuary from the mayhem of Manilla and the surrounding areas. There are 3 picturesque seaside beach coves at Puerto Gallera.

If diving is your gig, this is the place, prices reasonable; the scuba diving is fantastic and cheap too. Dive shops abound in this area. The ones open during the day are for certified scuba divers wishing to hire equipment, guides, and planned dives or for those wanting a beginner courses.

The dive shops open during the evening have girls dancing along a stage. You simply request to the Mama-san the girl of your desire, negotiate the specifics with the girl, and pay the bar fine. Away the two of you go for the evening. Surely for under $50 US, an exotic night is to be had.

Specific details are not necessary, simply go and have fun. English well spoken, plenty of accomodations available, but more of the basic style. Food is fresh, mostly seafood. tourists are monstly European being Brits & Germans. Enjoy!

Just a fewe additions to Puerta Galera. There are a few go-go bars in Sabang (one of the tourist beaches) ,but you would probably do better to bring your honeyko. Sabang and Puerta Galera can be reached by one of many ferries that travel between Batangas Pier and Mindoro. The BLTB or JAM liner bus leaves from Pasay City and has always taken between 3-4 hours to Batangas Pier. There are alot of ferries to choose from, so choose with care as alot of these are less than sea worthy and you and your girl will get seasick,if not killed.The ferry I recommend is the ski cat. It leaves Batangas at 11:30 and gets you to PG about 2:00. This is a real ferry that can hold several hundred people, although I've never seen more than a hundred on board any time I have traveled on it. The return trip is at 9:00 A.M. The price is P400 (about $8 per person, each way.) There is a main cabin and then a deck upstairs to sightsee from. There are bathrooms and a small snack bar on board. Once you arrive in PG, you will be assaulted by small bancas wanting to take you to your respective beach. Negotiate, as they will try to gouge you. The one memorable place I have stayed at is the Coco Beach Resort. This resort is accessable only by banca and it is isolated from the rest of the beaches. The place is 3 star. The grounds are superbly manicured and everything is picture perfect. The restaurants are excellent and the food is reasonable. The pool is clean and there is a slide. The rate includes a buffet breakfast, which includes all the standards, plus homemade bread and pastries. The beach, as all the beaches in PG are small and rocky. Do not expect Boracay beaches here. The diving is said to be excellent, and Coco Beach has their own dive boat. The accomodations are Nipa huts with no television and no air con. They do supply a fan and a mosquito net. One big negative for me was NO HOT WATER. The water is well water and it is ice cold. I would have gladly paid extra for hot water. This resort has one of the most unique restaurants I have ever eaten in. It is a three story high open air round resaurant that revolves at a slow rate so everyone can have a panoramic view of the area. This was spectacular. The food is cooked in plain view and the chef was excellent, and the food was cheap. If you are looking for a get away with your girl, this will impress her. BTW, I think I was the only American there as the resort was overwhelmed by Europeans. It is usually nice to run into some fellow countrymen to shoot the breeze with, but in this case my girl had 100% of my attention!

Nice story. Have you seen the commercial for Orbitz.com where it shows some blonde looking for a fantasy vacation for herself and her husband? In her dream you see a small thatched hut over the water in the moonlight. They are in bed covered with a mosquito net. Lots of very loud buzzing. When they turn the light on there must be a million gigantic flying bugs sticking to the net. End of fantasy as she decides something less exotic would be better.

Saw that, But PG isn't quite that tropical. I would be more worried about the mosquito bites!

Sabang, Philippines-----a tropical paradise: Palm tree covered mountain islands jutting out of warm, blue,clear water that laps on the shore of sandy beaches.......and, of course BEAUTIFUL and AVAILABLE women for a minimum of effort and expense. ($1 = 50 pesos in November 2004, but I'll speak in dollars)

Here's how it works: After a tiring day of scuba or snorkel, sleeping on the beach, or having a cold one at one of the many beach bars (.25 to $1 a piece gives you unforgettable atmosphere and view), rest up for a night at the "discos". My first stop after getting settled in (cab plus boat to island of Mindoro from Manila from LA) was the "Broadway Disco", just for a beer. Being pretty jet-lagged, I wasn't all that up for anything else......but the mama-san out front of the big and empty open-air bar spoke great English, was friendly and not too pushy. I drank a couple and talked with her for about an hour; at some point she asked me if I wanted to buy a girl a drink. Being new at this, I declined. (will explain below). Later, she asked me if I wanted to see the disco out back......which I didn't even realize existed. Why not? Through the curtain was another world.....pulsating music, gyrating women on stage and 10 women for every guy. The choice of beautiful women was overwhelming. But, not to worry, Mama-san brought one over to me, so no thinking was required. Mama was pretty clear on the business end, too: Buy a girl a drink, $3. Buy myself a drink, $1. Leave with the girl? $8 fee to the bar. The next morning (or whenever you want, if you're an early quitter ) $16 to the girl. And these girls are GOOD at customer service. Either I'm an incredible stud or they're fabulous actresses.....they were more apparently sincerely affectionate than some of the USA girlfriends I have had. And why not? Many Filipinas dream of landing a foreign guy; it's very common all over Sabang to see older (age 40 to 70) white dudes with a young lovely on their arm. So why not take a romantic evening stroll on the beach and look at the stars before getting to the main event? I talked with the ladies, most have passable English. Some had had factory jobs that paid $1/day, some had been unemployed for quite a while; some had kids to support with no man in their life; some said that they were "working" until they could find the right man. At the bars, they would get $1 for every drink they could get a guy to buy them (hence the higher price); they got another dollar if they danced up on the stage. As for me, I'm happy to support the local economy by bringing her home to my hotel (no hassle from hotels for guests......I stayed at the Mermaid....a room that would cost me $200 in Hawaii was $50 a night) and letting her do ____; then sleeping a couple hours, rolling over and doing ______; then sleeping a couple more hours and doing ________. After that, it's take her to breakfast and say goodbye or send her off with a little extra. Either way, I'm going back to bed and get some SLEEP!

Update/additional information about Sabang. Apparently the prices have changed. I just returned (to AC) from 4 days, staying at Portofino, on Little La Laguna Beach (the adjacent beach). A nice hotel, if you want to get away from it all (i.e., no telephones), good restaurant, associated PADI dive center two doors down the beach, a 30-second walk along the sand. But once you get to the point at the end of Sabang Beach, the path becomes discontinuous—you have to walk along the narrow beach in places—and at high tide (in the evenings at this time) the waves break on the steps of Portofino and the last few buildings before it. You have to either wade through the surf, or clamber over walls between the porches; either way, you can get pretty wet coming home with your barfine. The two I brought back took it in stride, though. But you can’t even walk through the surf to Coco Beach Resort (above post), you would definitely want to bring your own girl(s) if you stay there.

I was surprised at the prices. There are a half-dozen “discos” in Sabang. They are actually just gogo bars, but some of the girls put on a show, mostly featuring a lot of splits and gyrations—but some of them (the routines and the girls) were of Angelwitch (Bangkok) quality. Quality seemed comparable to Angeles, with a few 8s and maybe a 9 or two among mostly less desirable (IMHO) girls. But the barfines are 2,000 pesos (“1,000 to the bar, 1,000 to the lady” the mamasans explained), and lady drinks are 200 to 250 pesos, maybe some are more. The girls were sweet and responsive, and I was happy with my picks, although one did not speak more than a few words of either English or Tagolog (so my girlfriend couldn’t even talk with her).

The best restaurant we found was Cap’n Gregg’s (a little hard to find, but worth it).

Would love to see photos of some of the girls you barfined from here. The information on the P4P in Puerta Galera is always scant at best and usually the girls are of low quality but I would be interested to hear a full report on this area including photos of the hotel and such.

Now there's a set-up if I ever saw one. An Hombre with tastes in women that are well-documented to differ from mine, who has a tendency to post sarcastic comments regarding his opinion of my selections, just because I've never bought him a beer--he's asking me to post pictures so he can judge them.

Well, OK, I for one don't have a problem with my tastes. And my vote is the only one that counts. I'd like to buy Blazers a beer anyway someday soon.

I only pulled two girls from the discos. Apple was my girlfriend's choice to which I assented, she was very friendly and looked cuter in the bar than in the room. I probably would not have chosen her myself, but it was late and the flow of events was such...

Photo: Apple

Haidi was a cutie-pie of a spinner, with braces and green eyes (contacts). She was dancing when I walked into the bar, and the talent with which she executed her gyrations would have been welcome at Angelwitch in BKK.

Photo: Haidi 1
Photo: Haidi 2

Sabang is just ok for nightlife, but if you want a real nice beach vacation, go over to White Beach. Rooms range from P1,000 to 1,500+ with hot water and aircon. This is one of my favorite PI destinations. I only been there with my gf, so no need for the girlie bars in Sabang. The food is cheap, but selection is very limited. Beer is very cheap. Biggest drawback is the lady boys at most the small beach bars. They just annoy me is all.

The biggest plus is that you can walk just a few minutes from your hotel down the beach and reach seclusion. Take a blanket or large towel and your girl and see the most stars I ever seen in my life, even seen the Milky Way. It is pitch black when the moon is not out and of course this means some nice private moments with your girl(s).

The beach is extremly clean and the water is totally clear. Most of the year the water is nice and almost warm. A short walk in either direction and you can play around on some rocks too. An excellent place for beginner snorklers.

You can get there by trike from Puerto Galera or Sabang, or if traveling in a group, can get a banca boat for P700+.

Bud

Hey guys,
Just got back form Puerto Galera. Had a sensational time. Stayed at Marco Vincent Resort on white Beach. I went alone and didn't realized that White Beach is a great place to take your woman on vacation/honeymoon or kids in tow. It is really a family and romance oriented area. It is located about a 20 minute ride from Sabang where more of the nightlife is. I say it is a good place for the family because it is away from the bars and girls that get married guys in trouble. The beach is already for water sports, volleyball and sunbathing. the beach is far superior to Sabang. There is the Marco Vincent Resort that has one of the only speed boats on the Island and it is dedicated to diving. Though the beach is not near the dive sites. That boat will put you on them in 15 minutes so you don't loose out on diving if you wanted to add that to the honeymoon or family trip. The Divemaster/Manager (Rick) is a super guy.
The Resort cost about 100 usd a night but it is the only hotel that has wifi internet and a nice pool. It is a little bit off the beach which is one of the down sides but it didn't matter much to me. Again foreigners are the rule. Very few americans.
Sabang has the bars and is rowdy at times until late. Most of the bars close at 0200. I looked at a couple of hotels and it seemed that Atlantis Hotel was probably my # one pick. Mermaid was good also but was small and had fewer amenties.
To address the quality of girls question. there were very high quality females. I brought one From Sabang to white beach and she chilled with me for 3 days.

For anyone going to this neck of the woods feel free to email me @ biomed71@hotmail.com